‘Magnolia’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is a completely insane movie, an overstuffed ensemble of dying old men and child prodigies and biblical plagues and Tom Cruise’s best performance ever. One of the greatest casts of American actors plays a bizarreassemblage oflonely people—“I really do have love to give,” former Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) moans through a bloody mouth of broken teeth, “I just don’t know where to put it!”—desperately in need of a deus ex machina. And boy, do they ever get one. Magnolia isn’t always a good film, but it is an American classic. (SIFF Film Center, Seattle Center, siff.net, 7 pm, $12)